“Protect Us”

As Merrick Garland struggled to regain his composure in his confirmation hearing he attempted to explain how his family fled anti-Semitism and sought security in the US. He failed to choke out a full sentence. I know the moment well having experienced it almost every time I speak on subjects that matter to me and touch my soul. So instead of a fluid “They came to seek the protection of this glorious nation,” he could only and then barely eek out the words “Protect us” before he fell silent, struggling to hold back tears that are the boundary and signature of deepest truth.

He was saying: “My grandparents sought refuge in the United States because they believed you would protect us. You’d give us a life of security, freedom and possibility. Of that opportunity I made myself a jurist of renown. I prosecuted the bastards who blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma, and oversaw the legal consequences of that act. Now I would be a protector for others, as you were once the shield that succored and saved my ancestors. It is my duty and gift in recompense for what you have done for me.”

What he said sounded like, and was, a prayer. And also a promise. Garland, who will likely be the next Attorney General, promised, with his soft heart and firm grasp of the law, in humble gratitude to that for which we stand, that he’d stretch protective wings over our nation and a sorely abused department of government, a target of the lawless banditry that our collective idiocy placed in the White House for four years.

Protect us.

Yes, sir. We beg you, as once your grandparents silently begged at Ellis Island, shuffling into the Great Hall with only desperate hopes to light their way: protect us against lawlessness. Protect us against deceit that pretends to be virtue. Protect us against untruth that leads frightened people to do evil. Protect us from the extinguishing the flame that lured the best and neediest to our shores to make of many One, and of that one a light unto the nations.

Protect us.